5 Answers from Attorneys

A sister state application in California has to be filed. Along with the application should include a certified copy of the judgment and interest computation and law. Please contact us if you have any more questions.

You would have to domesticate the judgment in California by opening a special court proceeding, which is pretty much a formality. After 30 days post-service have elapsed and the judgment debtor does not challenge it, you will have a California judgment enforceable through regular collection efforts.

It will depend upon whether the NV judgment is from State court or Federal court. The procedure with enforcing federal judgments in a sister state is easier than the procedure to enforce a state court judgment in another state.

For federal court, the process is called "registration," and it involved obtaining a Certification from the Clerk for Registration of the Judgment in Another District. The judgment is then registered in the district where you want to enforce. The debtor is not entitled to notice. You then obtain an order from the local court permitting a levy to be done, and the first time that your debtor becomes aware of the registration is when an asset is seized or frozen.

With a state court judgment, the process is a bit more time consuming. A certified copy of the NV judgment is filed in California, along with a variety of other required papers, and a new filing fee is required as well. The entire package must be served on the debtor, and the debtor has 30 days from date of service to move to quash (again, on a variety of different grounds). You cannot execute on the judgment, except in certain situations, until after the 30 days have passed.

For more information on both processes, visit our website for a detailed explanation.